[Pup]

  She had learned what she thought were names for her new….. roommates?

  She didn’t recognize the language they used at all. She had only ever learned galactic trade, as it was the most common language on stations and basically required on ships. Racial languages only ever got used on very large stations or on planets. Stations large enough to have small pockets of natives were normally around core or heavy trade systems and the natives from the worlds near that station tended to group together. She had heard that planets were so large that languages could change simply by walking in one direction for long enough. That idea was insane, but now that she had seen rain, she wouldn’t dismiss it completely.

  If rain existed, who knew what other fiction stories were real.

  She didn’t think she would be expected to learn this new language, as Kitty, the female, seemed to know some galactic trade. Though her accent was terrible and she didn’t speak in complete sentences. Still, she might be difficult to understand, but the male, whose name sounded like a deep drawn-out moan, didn’t speak a word of galactic trade. Which was unfortunate, as he was the one that gave her a new name. It sounded like a deep grumbly ‘pop’, but it was distinct enough from their other words to get her attention, so she supposed it served its purpose. It was better than what she had before. She had always been a number, so she doubted the male could even say it.

  With how much trouble Kitty seemed to have with the racial language, she didn’t know why they still used it. It should be much easier for him to learn Trade, than for her to try and make her voice that deep and scratchy sounding. She had asked, but Kitty had simply replied with ‘Magic’, so she left that conundrum alone. She had always found it best to not get involved with the crazy cult stuff some spacers practiced. Some of it was for good luck, but she had heard horror stories. Best not to encourage the giants.

  They were crazy enough as it stood.

  Her quest to discover the secret to head pats ran dangerously close though. It had been a fit of pique and curiosity when she had asked Kitty why she always seemed to want head pats and so much attention. She had expected….. she didn’t know what she had expected. She thought she would at least get a clue, but the answer had been a confusing mess that included the words magic and emptiness. It had been so confusing she had to go and do some laundry just to calm down.

  Were head pats cult related?

  Magic certainly couldn’t be a thing, right?

  Was she the one that was crazy for avoiding things like that?

  All she could do was follow the pair around as much as possible. She would learn the truth eventually.

  She had to. Her sanity might depend on it.

  The bridge was oddly quiet, considering that Kitty was there. Sitting on the male’s lap, occasionally shoot looks her way.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  She wasn’t sure what she had done to gather Kitty’s attention, but it made her nervous.

  The male might terrify her in an existential way. Maybe even a primal way, considering it was the little voice in her head that had all the opinions on him. But that was all feeling, emotional. Logically and physically, the male was the best being she had ever worked around. Not that she was doing much of that work. He barely interacted with her, either focused on his own work or not interrupting her on the rare occasion he might have gotten in the way. Almost as if she was too small to notice most of the time. Unless it involved his work, he barely spared her any attention at all.

  That could certainly be because Kitty demanded most of his time, work or otherwise, but she appreciated the quiet acceptance of ‘work first’. She felt she could do whatever was required of her efficiently and without problems if she needed to work around him. If she had had a new master to give her that work in the first place at least.

  Not having orders still made her uncomfortable, even if the laundry helped a bit.

  Kitty was a very different kind of scary though. She was very real. Not that the male wasn’t real, but he felt like working near a very large machine. If she didn’t pay attention or something went wrong she would die very quickly, but the machine wasn’t ‘out for blood’ or any targeted thing like that. Like all of the delicate things she had cleaned in her life, it would probably be her fault if she died to the male. For her, that kind of theoretical or existential dread wasn’t present enough to be of any real worry. Kitty on the other hand, she could very much see sticking her somewhere unpleasant and leaving.

  A very real and present threat.

  Since Kitty was just a person, a strange person but a person, she had to worry about all the people things that could happen when Kitty was around. Things like anger or jealousy could have real consequences when the person feeling them was almost twice her size. Kitty was also much more active and vocal about things in general, whereas their male partner was quiet much of the time. Little more than a deep rumble or a short few words when he needed to communicate.

  That made the current quiet odd and set her fur on end. Kitty was almost never this quiet outside of sleep.

  It was probably why the radio crackling to life scared her so badly she nearly made another mess. Because she spent much of her time on the floor, which they all did even if it was just a bit more voluntary for her, she was very aware of all messes and small stains on the floor. Aware and determined to remove them. Especially if she might be the cause.

  Her worry about wet floors made her miss whatever the radio had been on about, but she did manage to catch when Kitty spoke about words. She was very aware whenever Kitty spoke in Trade. It usually meant she was involved somehow. This time it sounded like the radio was the culprit for whatever Kitty didn’t think was good.

  “I think they want us to pick a better radio channel.”

  Listening and trying to parse what the broken words on the radio were talking about, she made the mistake of thinking out loud. A mistake that brought both Kitty and the male’s attention straight to her.

  ‘Oh no.’

  “Know, then you speak.”

  ‘What have I done!?!?’

  Staring at the radio console before her after Kitty had hauled her around like a doll, she had a very bad sinking feeling in her gut. One that only got worse and worse as she spoke with what she could only assume was the highest authority figure she had ever interacted with.

  “Acknowledged. We are sending a small vessel with the inspection team, as it seems the weaponry is under control. We will be locking with the SW docking clamp, please allow access as soon as possible and keep the channel open for any further developments.”

  The daze she had been in because of the bad feeling in her stomach abruptly shattered when she heard that.

  ‘When did weapons come into this and how are they under control?! Wait, did they say docking?!’

  The sinking feeling turned into a very hard knot of pain. She scrambled to try and remember what she had said. The pain and the realization she would need to go meet them in person were making that basically impossible.

  The pats on her head and the deep rumble sending giddiness into her made a very strange mix in her stomach.

  ‘I don’t feel so well.’